>> cenk: we decide our crew is going to be a new band called m abandon m. the first song will be "acting like a hispanic." we're coming for you. we're across the border. find out our debut song tonight at "the young turks".com. "viewpoint" is next. >> john: i'm john fugelsang. good evening. this is "viewpoint." my friends there are days when politics are frustrating, and then there are days when it's down right december gusting. unless you're a terrorist a violent felon or an insane person who wants to buy a gun off the books today was a disgusting time. with parents of the victims of sandy hook elementary school looking on, the bill banning the purchase of firearms was

rejected. immediately holding the results of the votes two voices patricia who prevented a gunman from loading a third clip at the shooting of gabby giffords and summed up the feelings of the majority of americans. >> shame on you! >> it was a sentiment that resonated with vice president biden who spoke immediately upon leaving the senate chamber. >> the united states senate let down people, including those newtown families. i don't know how anybody looks them in the eye could have voted the way they did today. >> john: and it was a sentiment echoed and magnified by president obama one our later as he spoke surrounded by victims of gun violence. >> obama: i heard some say blocking this step would be a victory. my question is a victory for

who? a victory for what? victory for not doing something that 90% of americans, 80% of republicans, the vast out of your constituents wanted to get done? it begs the question who are we here to represent? i heard folks say having families lobby for this legislation was some how misplaced. a prop somebody called it. emotional blackmail some outlets said. are they serious? do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence don't have a right to weigh in on this issue? do we think their emotions, their loss is not relevant to this debate? so all in all this was a pretty shapeshameful day for watch. >> we're joined by cofounder

stop violence and kids joe rosenthal and kim russell, thank you for joining me on this emotional evening. it's a pleasure to have both of you back. kim, i would like to start with you. you're personally touched by gun violence, what are your feelings. >> i'm appalled and disappointed with our officials. 90% of americans wanted common sense bipartisan legislation passed. it's a no-brainer. it should not have been an uphill battle. we're very disappointed but we're just going to keep doing what we are doing. >> john: i speak for many when i said it never should have required 60 votes in the first place. we knew it was going to a close road to get any gun legislation passed in the senate, but did you think we would not even be able to get background checks which are so popular with the majority of nra members?

>> i questioned whether this bill would come through with the senate. i was sure it would die in the house. 90% of democrats voted for it. 90% of republicans voted against it. it was not an universal background check bill. it was temporarily requiring background checks at gun shows and on the internet congress was perfectly happy letting criminals and terrorists and mentally ill continue to buy guns in 33 states from private gun dealers without background checks. and even before the vote came up they stripped out two of the most important aspects the assault weapons ban and the ban on high capacity ammunition magazines which would have prevented another new town from happening. no universal background checks. no ban on military style weapons. no ban on high magazine clips which is the common denominator in mass shootings. we see how broken the it is when

they have manipulated our congress in high fiving because criminals, terrorists can continue to buy guns without background checks or detection and that is absurd. >> indeed. kim, what did you make of the president's speech following the vote? i thought it was one of his finer speeches but probably the angriest that i've seen him in quite awhile. >> he has every right to be angry. what a disappointing day for all of us. i would like to think that our senators work for us. today seem to say maybe they don't. you know, it's just disappointing when 90% of americans want to see something happen. my seven-year-old daughter has been watching me work so hard. she's mom if everybody wants this to happen, why do you have to work so hard? i can't give her an answer. so you know, we're just going to keep going. the senators who voted against

us they're going to hear from us. we'll make it simple for our mothers to let them know how outraged we are. we're going to keep going. we're going to keep calling them. if this congress can't do what we need them to do then we're going to vote one in that will. >> john: john, what about that? what are you hearing from people in the gun safety movement about moving forward? what do you think is the plan now and what are your feelings on the future. >> well, what i'm hearing from gun owners like myself, and and non-gonenon-gun owners alike it's absurd indication of how broken our democracy is and we have to vote these people out of office and secret people in who are more concerned with public health and safety, in reducing the 90 gun deaths every single day. john that's over 9,000 americans killed by guns just since the newtown massacre three and a half months ago. and you are congress is voting against an universal background check for criminals so criminals

can buy guns undetected? we need to vote this congress out of office in 2014. i think we may be able to do it on this issue. but that's another 60,000 dead americans from now. >> john: you're also talking about getting red state voters to vote out republicans which is and a bit of an uphill battle. what do you think is the next step in this fight. how do you reframe the debate. how do you take this language to conservative folks who might not have thought as deeply about this issue. how do you convince them of what they just did was celebrate the fact that it's easier for violent criminals and terrorist toss get their hands on guns. >> we've been at this in four months. in four months we have 100,000 members. we have nearly 100 chapters in 40 states. so where are we going to be in eight months? where are we going to be in 12 months, 16 months? we're just getting bigger and stronger. we will get more mothers. we will get other organizations where you know, the nra has been

at this for a long time. we're just getting started. this is the beginning. we're disappointed, but we're going to keep fighting. >> john: john, does anybody want to take guns away? is that part of the plan that your organization has advocated? >> that's an amazing question. i'm so glad you asked this question. i'm a gun owner and i've been at this since 1965. that was 600,000 dead americans ago. we support gun rights but not for the criminals terrorists and mentally ill. every time we talk about a background check for criminals the nra say that this is going to lead to gun confiscation. how can they support arming criminals without detection. if we replicate what certain states have done like massachusetts, renewable licensing, ban on assault weapon

and ban on military style of these large ammunition magazines, we have the toughest gun laws and the lowest fatality in the nation. this isn't a mystery. if you want to lower injuries and deaths do what massachusetts has done. if you want to raise deaths and injuries do nothing, which is what the congress has done. kim ruing and john rosenthal thank you so much this evening. i know we'll be talking about this in the future. we're pleased to be joined by rolling stone editor, the great tim dickinson. they called today a shameful day in washington. >> it's a shameful day for democracy when you have 90% of americans foiled by the senate. what kind of a democracy do we live in when we can't have an up or down vote that on something that

has 90% support in the country. >> john: president obama also said that this marked only round one in the fight for gun control legislation. let me ask you tim what do you think comes next specifically for gun control legislation more universally. >> well, i don't think that manchin-toomey has much of a future unless there is an soap-like up rising on the twitter. but americans are distracted. nra wins when the americans are distracted. it's tragic that we have the boston bomb, and the poisoned letters, and people could have brought more pressure to bear if there hadn't been these other factors going on this week. i think the real political future for gun control is out in the states. california is probably next in line for a major gun-control effort like we've seen in maryland new york, and colorado. i think the nra and the gun

lobbyists have proven to be near invincible in washington but they're much more vulnerable out in the states. if you can string together enough states you might get some real progress after having been frustrated in dc. >> john: tim, just to clarify if this atrocity hadn't happened in botch you boston, you don't think this would have failed? this would have failed anyway, correct? >> i think it would have been a tougher fight. it's just sick but i think people have been able to duck this fight and the political consequences of blocking this legislation because there is so much attention focused elsewhere. >> john: right. >> i think we've lost sight of newtown because we're so focused on boston right now. >> john: i agree with that. we hear over and over again how 90% of the american people supported background checks. what is the salvation of 90% of republicans and 10% of democrats who voted against this legislation. are they counting on no

attention span of the american people? >> what they're worried about is primary votes of republicans getting challenged by someone who is farther on the right on the gun issue, and red state democrats are trying to stay on the right side of the nra because the nra has a very long memory and they'll go after people a decade later we saw that request richard doing lugar who was primaried by richard mourdock in the lack go round. but because of the lugar's stand on the assault ban back in 1994. this is the reality that politicians have to live with. so far for all of bloomberg's money we haven't seen a group step up as a real counterweight politically and financially by the nra. it will be interesting to see what happens to landreu who tack a vote in favor of these background checks and has a big target on her chest because of it. >> john: you're talking about things that happened a decade

ago. wayne lapierre was for background checks in the 90s. do you feel that the democrats and republicans both support this common sense very mild regulation failed to actually hammer home to this minority that they are essentially standing up for no background checks of any begun purchases whatsoever? >> you know, it's very difficult. the nra now supports--is representative of the gun try at large. this is a triumph of post truth politics. we saw this with the death panels that toppled obama-care, and we're seeing it again this is being framed as the gun grabbers who are coming to get your gun even though the legislation if you read it, outlaws such a thing. but when you have everybody who is willing to lie and to frame this for folks who are very excitable on the issue, and to vote this issue and will vote

this issue in the next midterm election, you know, it's not surprising that this--the people get scared. they don't have--unless there is a cavalry coming to their rescue in the 2014 election and there doesn't seem like there is at this point that would be sufficient to defend them against nra attack ads it's not surprising that we saw the result that we did. >> john: or, tim they're the kind of people who enjoy being lied to. will this issue still be relevant in 2014? or will it be pushed to the back burn you are by then in america's collective mental hard drive? >> the point is that the nra wins because the americans are distracted. we looked at boston today and we'll be thinking about when it comes to pulling the lever in the polling booth, did the representative help the economy? but there is the other side of

the debate who vote only on gun rights, and that will be driving their votes and that's what people are responsive to. that's why single issue politics can triumph like it did today. >> john: you're right until someone they love is shot in the face by one of those illegal guns that they care so much about. tim dickinson thank thank you for coming on the show and your continued writing on this. >> absolutely. >> john: if you saw the news on the boston marathon you know that they had a suspect, he was arrested but ten he wasn't. it's been a confusing day. we'll clean up all the details for you coming up next.

>> john: there may an break through in the investigation of the bomb,ing attack at the boston marathon. investigators led by the fbi are reportedly found images in a veins video that shows a possible suspect carrying and

then perhaps dropping a black backpack similar to the shredded remains of a backpack believed to have held one of two pressure cooker bombs that caused all the carnage. for more on that in a moment, from "abc news," if you're surprised the suspect isn't already in custody it may be because you were paying close attention to the news today. here are some of the headlines curtsy of the "huffington post"." cnn fox, arrested. globe, imminent, ap, in custody. bnc and cbs yeah, no. they had it right. cnn insisted it had three sources of their story and ap said it stood by its information, the fbi insisted an arrest had not been made and offered a little advice, i quote quote, since these stories often have unintended consequences we ask the media particularly at this early stage of the investigation to exercise caution and attempt to verify

information through appropriate official channels before reporting. meanwhile, the third fatality in the bombings has been identified. as linzi lu from china. we go to marcy gonzalez. what a pleasure to have you with us, thank you so much. >> thank you john. as you were saying, they have absolutely not made an arrest but we're told they're making significant progress in the investigation. we're told by sources that this could be the suspect that they have been looking for, a man seen talking on his cell phone carrying a black bag across thinks chest possibly leaving that bag. this comes hours after painstakingly going frame by frame through 2,000 images in the crowd around the finish line, the local abc station here in boston is reporting reporting that

the surveillance video came outside of a lord and taylor department store close to the finish line, but again no arrests no suspect named, and that is the latest right now. we're waiting for an update from the fbi. they're supposed to hold a news briefing this evening. they've since canceled that, and they have given us no idea when we could get our next official updates. >> john: the l.a. times reported two possible suspects had been identified is that still being discussed or is that refuted. >> the investigators have not said anything. all of these headlines have been coming from sources. the fbi has not come out at any point saying yes, we have found our guys or two guys, as some sources are reporting. there have been conflicting reports, people giving different information. i think the word imminent that

is thrown people off. some take that to mean that it could happen at any moment, and other people have gone too far that they have found an image and gotten ahead of themselves and felt that meant that the investigators are close to making an arrest at any moment. >> john: what is the mood in boston today. there was a bomb they would calledthreat calledin and there another building was evacuated? are they related or copy cats. >> yes, the evacuation of the courthouse was a big deal because there was a lot of media there, law enforcement and there could have an arrest at any point. and if there was someone arrested that's where they would be brought soon after. the boom threat came in. they evacuated the building. the mood was tense but they cleared it, found that the bomb threat was just a hoax. i think the mood is tense but also very somber.

there are two more candlelight vigils planned for tonight for the victims. >> john: mars ci gonzales, thank you for your time this evening. i'm pleased to be joined by tim clemente a former fbi agent who took part of the 2001 anthrax attacks, and investigator in the bombings of embassies in kenya and bosnia. >> thank you i'm sorry it's under tragic circumstances. >> cenk: as am i. let's talk about the process. how does an investigation like this work. >> it branches out like a spider web, it branches out in many directions. something new in the last decade is the on set of every human being being able to record digital video literally everyone who is out there. that increases the amount of evidence that the fib and other

investigators have to poor through. if you think back to 15, 16 years ago to the atlanta bombing of the olympics, there was very little video evidence that was available. some security cameras and that was about it. it was much tougher to find and identify a suspect whereas today it's easier to identify somebody they have to go through that voluminous amount of digital imaging to find those suspects. what we heard about two potential suspects is indicative of the fact that they've obviously gone through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different footages of the timing around the incident, and they found people who were interesting to them. >> cenk: well, that's my next question about all the footage. the sheer volume of evidence that we have available especially as you mentioned all the video footage and stills, could that be a hindrance as well as a help? does that slow investigators down? >> it increases the amount of

gum shoe work. rather than knocking on doors and doing an neighborhood canvass, they have tip lines where hundreds and hundreds of people are sending in their video images. that requires thousands investigators, and i think that thousand is double and triple if you include all the support personnel fbi and other agencies. they're pouring through this and looking for timelines and the devices. they don't see the device being placed specific by will you a bag being dropped. then they're looking for somebody carrying that bag ten minutes prior. then they might be looking for that individuals an hour prior or a week prior doing pre-attack surveillance. all that volume, yes, it's time-consuming but it's also of great, great help to the investigators. >> john: well, as anyone who has been watching tv in the last 24 hours, the investigators do have remains of the pressure cooker bombs, is that enough to begin

to trace these bombs back to their maker? >> absolutely. the thing that is tough in a case like this because of the primitive nature of the devices the pressure cookers that are available in hundreds if not thousands of stores in the new england area and across the united states, and things like bbs which would not be marked in any way as far as manufacturers or place of origin those things are generic generic. if you have a phone the circuit board already helpful because that's traceable to a specific device whether it be a timer or telephone that was used for a command detonation. those things are again the more sophisticated the easier to trace. the more primitive the evidence, the harder to trace. a pipe bomb is going to contain a low explosive smokeless powder which ordinary di ily does

nat have tag evidence and not easy to identify. >> john: are there elements then due to the primitive nature of this device, does that itself give any clue who might be behind this? >> it certainly does. we've seen these types of devices as you heard over the last 24 hours in places like afghanistan, not as much in iraq but in afghanistan, in pakistan and in india, and it may be that the nature of the implement itself, a pressure cooker is more commonly used in those countries than in places like iraq. al-qaeda refers to it in their recruiting website to inspire others. it's simple. a pressure cooker, the purpose of a device like a pressure cooker, the reason why you would need a device like this because a slow-burning--something that does not detonate, it doesn't--it literally explodes. it only explodes when it's in a

contained vessel, and the gas has overwhelmed the vessel and then turns that vessel into shrapnel. the pressure cooker is a poor man's way of putting the explosive in, locking the top on and now you have a vessel for the explosive. >> john: i'm sure you're confused as the rest of us was about the amount of confusion today. is it possible that law enforcement deliberately put out false information about an arrest to flush out suspects? >> it certainly could be done. one of the big units involved in a case like this, and every major case is the behavioral analysis down in quantico. my brother is from that unit, and they're directly involved in directing the investigators of how to use the media and information and disinformation to lead to an arrest. they may be using this as a means of pointing someone in the wrong direction. they think they're safe, now

they come up from undercover and move in the opposite direction, and we get them that way. it could be done. i don't blame the media all. they're trying to get the but pursuit of the story is not always pursuit of the truth. >> john: are you confident we'll find the people who is responsible for this bombing? >> yes, i'm very bombing. >> john: tim clemente, thank you for sharing your experiences with us tonight on "viewpoint." >> thank you. >> john: the gang of eight may have done something right. i talked to a college student whose life may change because of the senate bill on immigration. that and a lot more coming up.

>> john: today's thing of the day is the come back fail of the day. former governor confirmed liar disgraced adulter and proven misuser of taxpayer funds mark sanford did give his wife jenny the house in the divorce settlement but some how he still

got partial custody of his credibility. the settlement also states that either may enter the other's house without permission, a provision that mark has violated according to jenny. she called it trespassing but this is known as stay away from my home you philandering bastard clause. some portray sandford as a romantic figure but there are some who are creeped out about him. i'm talking about the house g.o.p. campaign committee which as of today is dropping all financial support of him. governor sanford take hard my romantic friend, it's better to have received g.o.p. campaign contributions and lost them than to never have received g.o.p. campaign contributions at all.

>> john: it almost scenes like the u.s. senate proposed more immigration restrictions not fewer. the bipartisan gang of eight filed legislation that would

seal off high-risk border areas before most undocumented immigrants could even begin getting illegal status. there is a trade-off. it finally charts a path to citizenship for people who have been in the united states for years, sometimes since early childhood. these are people who are american in every way expect they could be plucked out of their homes and deported to a country that they no longer know. this includes ola a new documentdocumentary "the dream is know. ola came to the u.s. when she was five but they lost their asylum case because of a clerical error. she was a model student when they told her she was being sent back to to albania. >> you're going to be deported. i was taken to the basement, handcuffed to a chair in the hallway six hours. >> john: now after gathering more than 15,000 signatures of

support ola was granted a temporary stay and now a sophomore in the pre-med program in michigan. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> john: my pleasure. let me start with this. often the immigration debate focuses on latinos, but you're a different face for immigration. tell us how your family first came to america. >> absolutely. my mother and i immigrated from albania when i was five years old, we settled in michigan and fell in love with it. >> john: well, that's terrific. you wound up growing up in america, being american in every way except where you were born. legislation was proposed in the u.s. senate today, is it good news or bad news for you? >> it's fairly good news, yes. it finally gives me a path to citizenship and puts my mother on track for citizenship as

well. >> john: we just played a brief clip from a film that features you, but what was it like when you were threatened with deportation? >> so when i was a senior in high school, two months prior to my high school graduation, i was basically--i went down to immigration for a standard routine screening and i was told you're going to be deported within the week. that's that. basically my community rallied behind me, and we got that pushed until my graduation date. we got a grassroots petition, got 15,000 petitions and that led to deferred action. that allowed me to stay a year and complete my freshman year in college. >> john: how did you come to be handcuffed as in your account in the film. >> when we went down to the routine screening i was taken back to an office. i was told i was going to be deported. i was handcuffed and taken to another building. i was handcuffed to a chair in

the basement for several hours detained for a while longer and then released later that day. >> john: this was due to a clerical error. >> it was due to a clerical error years prior to that that ended up closing our case, yes. >> john: what did you say to them as you were handcuffed, did anyone hear your pleas? how did you come to be released that evening? >> it was surreal. it was dehumanizing. no one listens to you or asks you do you need anything, can i get you anything. even when you plead with them, i'm two months away from graduating high school, can i please get an extension. they say just relax and calm down and walk away. facing that as an 18-year-old senior in high school is so difficult. >> john: now 15,000 people as you mentioned came to your defense in this petition. how did that come about? >> once the stamp at my high school heard about this, and the

students heard about this, they said there is no way that this is going to happen. you're one of us. you're a member of our community, and you're someone who gives back to our community we're not letting you leave. they stepped up to the plate. they said what can we do? they made it happen. >> john: now we know that you're trying to become a citizen in the country that you spent most of your life in. if your path of citizenship takes five years what do you plan on doing while you wait to go to medical school. >> i would not be able to apply for medical school until i am an u.s. citizen. i would have a good three years of just not being able to do anything because i wouldn't be able to apply for medical school. and if that's the case, then i plan to continue my cancer research in another lab and continue working with lower income women who are going through struggle with chemo and cancer battling. >> john: during all this time you're paying taxes. >> that's correct. >> john: i absolutely thought so.

ola, thank you for joining us. you can hear more of ola's story in the documentary "the dream is now" at www.thedreamisnow.org it's been a pleasure speaking with you. keep us informed of how your case is going, we wish you the best. >> thank you. >> john: thank you. raising the age old question how soon is too soon? high panel of none experts joins me next.

>> john: welcome back. how soon is too soon when it comes to politicizing a tragedy and what's it's dishes between plightizing a tragedy and trying to prevent the next one. our panel came to the same consensus. in the case of the attack of the boston marathon, until more details are known it's not a good time to use it for political purposes. but louie ghomert does not agree

with us. ghomert has this to say earlier on c-span. >> we know al-qaeda has camps with the drug cartels with the other side of the mexican border. we know that people are now he being trained to come in and act like hispanics when they're radical islamists. we know these things are happening, and it's just insane not to protect ourselves. >> john: oh, they're going to act like hispanic. i love it when al pacino was in "scarface" and acted like hispanic for two hours. and louie ghomert makes racists look so subtle. for more on this i'm joined by my panel of non-experts and what a panel it is. politico median scott blakeman, and one and old judy gold, and the politico median and author of "the pleat idiot's quite to comedy

writing" jim mendrinos. when is it too soon to talk about politics after a tragedy or is it different in every situation. >> i think there are different aspects of politics that can be discussed like barney frank was trying to make a point thank god we have infrastructure. >> john: first responders. >> today perhaps not, but you know,-- >> john: would you agree with me that barney frank kind of crossed the line when he began relating it to the sequester and implied it would have been much worse when it was it's not proven. >> but that's not a question-- >> but newtown, you should be talking about gun control immediately. i'm sorry but yes. >> i think when you're on topic it's never too soon. if you say people with bombs pretty bad people, what can we do to prevent it, let's have that conversation. >> but that's stretching. >> it's not a question of too soon but too ignorant.

does your comment have merit? after newtown that was the time to say we need to have sensible gun legislation. the only appropriate reaction to what happened in boston is what we did 11, 12 years ago in 9/11. we were here in manhattan we held each other and went to houses of worship, sang god bless america. >> i love america. >> of course you do, and we held candles. sadly our country has changed in 12 years. we didn't have twitter or facebook. we have guys like ghomert saying kill all the muslims. that's only one. there are more twitter followers. i think barney frank's remarks were not valid. >> john: but the first half of them were, treating speculation as fact was off. >> i have problem with discussion but agenda. these are guys hammering a square agenda into a round hole

any excuse anti-islamist receiptish. >> john: i love how you're a sane republican and you're embear raced by the louie ghomerts of the world. if you begin talking about gun safety right away to prevent another tragedy totally fair. if this is time to say teachers are not paid enough and we need more. are we online? >> it would be like taking 9/11 and try to invade another country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and using 9/11 as an excuse. >> john: thank god that could never happen. many are echoing louie ghomert and using the strategy to discuss immigration. we don't know the nationality of the attacker or the race, but it has not stopped others from making connection with the immigration issue.

is it the right time--i'll start with you jim, is it the right time to have the immigration question? >> no, there are more pressing issue. national safety is the more pressing issue and it has nothing to do with immigration. i'm going for heartbroken if all those people who talk about gun ownership are going to talk about, they entered legally. are they going to hold to their hypocrisy. >> and to say what happened today, these same people who blamed janet napolitano that any terrorist could walk in and buy a gun. >> john: in many ways when you look at steve king if it was an immigrant, we have to revise the whole program you're the same guys who say all gun owners should not be penalized by the action of a few. but now you're going to do that with immigrants and visas?

the expansion of background checks failed to get the necessary votes today. if it has the support of 90% of americans, and it still can't pass the senate, is there any hope of strengthening gun control in this country? i'll go to the mom first. >> the fact that these guys are elected to vote on our behalf, and this is what they do when 90% of america agrees with this, they should be fired. they are not doing their job. this is ridiculous. no one needs a magazine. if he had--how many times are we going to hear it. if he had to stop and reload there will be more children on this earth right now. >> john: jim i know you're a republican much love and respect, but when the majority of republicans and majority of nra members supported this, this is not leftest like banning assault weapons like ronald reagan fought for this is for background checks.

are you surprised? >> how can you be surprised when congress is about agendas and not serving the people. when is the last time they worked together for legislation. if we can't come over the bodies of our children who have been slain-- >> let's not leave out the democrats and primary challenge every democrat who voted against these bills, there are good ones in the bunch but they should be gone. what is the point of being in the senate if you're not doing the right thing. joe manchin, i give credit for he comes from a tremendously right thing. and there were four or five republicans who came along i'm as frustrated as you are. but all of us comedians are optimists. >> what? >> john: not the ones you hang out with. we're all women-hating alcoholics. >> we need to primary challenge them. we have people with money. let them pay the consequence

with this vote. >> john: you know, i think a lot of them would have been primaried if they voted for this. let's be honest about that, including the democrats. they're not there to represent the people. they're there to follow their own conscience. isn't this a story about the need of campaign finance reform even more than gun control reform. >> the nra is a lobbying group that represents merchants, fine. but they don't make policy. it's up to these people to do the right thing. from alabama they don't want integration. well, are you going to do the right thing? >> that's mind numbing naive. they make policy, they fund campaigns and the most funded campaign wins. in america almost exclusively. they're going to throw money at people. we're going to allow them to throw money at people. they're influencing policy. if you cannot vote for somebody you should not be able to donate money to them period.

>> john: that's my kind of republican. scott blakeman, judy gold, and author of "the complete idiot's comedy writing," jim mendrinos. remember this, the next time a child is killed by a gun without a background check which u.s. senators will have blood on their hands. i'll be reading their names in my commentary, and that's next.

>> john: so congratulations are in order to the nra the republicans and a few democrats. the tiniest weakest more flaccid possible reform comprehensive background checks to screen potentially dangerous people trying to buy guns, something that 90% of americans want, but the nra and minority of senators don't. welcome to the gun nation without representation, and the next time a child is killed by a gun, purchase without a background check please remember you built this.

the courage shown by every day americans in boston has now been matched by the cowardice shown by 45 senators, senators who just helped guarantee that more and more americans will have the chance to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. a small number of lobbyists and gun manufacturers as the voice of the people, it would be harsh to say that senators who voted no cared more about the safety of their senate seats than they do about the safety of children. it's true so i'll say it again. senators who voted no care more about the safety of their senate seats than they care about the lives of their kids. it's a great day for the nra who once supported background checks when they represented gun owners you but now they only represent gun manufacturers and sellers you know the guys who cashed in on newtown. the guys who sell lies and fear to their members. now the honor roll starting with the republicans who remind you

that your children's lives are not as important as the rights of convicted felons who easily buy a gun. lamaral danker, kelly john blunt richard burr, saxby chandlis the guy who lied about being a vietnam vets. dan coast coats tom coburn, thad cochrane, bob corker. mike crapo don't get in a car with that guy. ted cruz, america's sweetheart p michael enzy. let's catch up. we got bob corker, and it's coming up at any point now. there we go. mike enzi. deb fisher i want you to know their faces as well. jeff flake, of course, i'm a little bit ahead. i'm just going to keep on going.

the overwhelming straight lindsey graham p orrin hatch dean heller, john hogan. james enhoff, they're all here. johnny isaacson, ron johnson mike lee, mitch mcconnell jerry moran, rand paul, pat roberts, marco rubio jeff sessions david vitter, roger wicker. these are guys who had a chance to stop killing now the democrats who decided their senate seats and pensions of nra ratings are not getting primaried are more important than you max baucus, heidi high camp and sorry of the massacring of names. harry reid also voted no only because that means he can bring the vote up again but he gets honorary mention for